Maryland Parliamentary Debate Society

The Maryland Parliamentary Debate Society (MPDS) is a debating society composed of students at the University of Maryland, College Park. Founded in 1997, MPDS competes on the American Parliamentary Debate Association intercollegiate debate circuit. Since its founding, MPDS has continually seen competitive success, sending successful teams to the APDA National Championships each year, and consistently placing within the top thirty competing colleges in the country. As of October 2015, the University of Maryland among the top-ten colleges on the APDA circuit for the 2015-2016 debate season.
Structure
The Maryland Parliamentary Debate Society, like most schools on the APDA league, is entirely student-run. The team operates without an official faculty coach, and relies on volunteer faculty advisors for administrative support. The current faculty advisor of the Maryland Parliamentary Debate Society is Scott Kastner, an associate professor of Government & Politics at the University of Maryland. The team's day-to-day activities are managed by a five-person Executive Board, which serves a term of one year starting in December. The Executive Board handles matters ranging from tournament registration, budget administration, and novice (first-year debater) retention and recruitment. From 2011-2014, the team was coached by Adam and Michelle Groce, then-graduate students of the University of Maryland. The Groces (formerly Adam Groce and Michelle Zimmerman) were former debaters for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and had achieved 2nd-place Team of the Year during the 2006-2007 debate season. The team currently has no official coaches, but is aided by APDA alumni from a variety of colleges and universities.
National Competition
The Maryland Parliamentary Debate Society competes on the American Parliamentary Debate Association national circuit. Each weekend during the school year, MPDS attends intercollegiate debate competitions organized by member schools of the APDA league. As of 2014, there were over fifty universities on the APDA circuit, and Maryland debaters regularly compete against teams from Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale, as well as peers from public universities like the College of William & Mary and Rutgers University.
Each year, MPDS hosts an annual fall tournament, typically held in November. The tournament attracts debaters from across the country, and has had more than 160 debaters in attendance in past years. In 2014, the champions of the Maryland Fall Invitational were Juliana Vigorito and David Israel, both from Johns Hopkins University. In 2013, MPDS hosted the APDA National Championships, drawing more than 140 competitors.
MPDS also hosts a summer tournament, informally referred to as MORPDA. MORPDA is renowned for a unique style in which debaters are assigned different partners for each round of the five-round tournament. MORPDA is intended to be an opportunity for debaters to interact in a low-stakes setting, and has been praised as an event that provides younger debaters an opportunity to make friends from other colleges and universities. MORPDA is also known for the "Spirit of MORPDA." The "Spirit of MORPDA" discourages a focus on competitive success, and instead encourages debaters to recognize the value of inter and intra-team amity and fellowship.
Public Debates
The Maryland Parliamentary Debate society hosted a debate between the campus Democrats and Campus Republicans for the 2012 presidential election.
Related
* :Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society
* :Rutgers University Debate Union
* :Yale Debate Association
* : Cambridge Union Society
* : Oxford Union Society
* : The Durham Union Society
* : London School of Economics, Grimshaw International Relations Club
* :Berkeley Forum
* :Olivaint Conférence
* :Studentenforum im Tönissteiner Kreis
* :Olivaint Conference of Belgium

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